Ministry of Justice

This Government inherited a record and rising courts backlog. We have funded a record-high allocation of 110,000 Crown Court sitting days this financial year to deliver swifter justice for victims, 4,000 more than in 2024/25 under the previous Government. However, the scale of the challenge is beyond what increasing sitting days can achieve. We are carefully considering the recommendations from Sir Brian Leveson’s review of efficiency to reduce crown court backlogs in a once-in-a-generation reform to deliver swifter justice for victims.

In family courts, good progress is being made to reduce backlogs. In public law they have reduced from 10,533 to 10,282 from May 2024 to May 2025, and in private law from 40,628 to 37,225 from May 2024 to May 2025. Areas delivering the Pathfinder model in private law have made significant progress addressing delays.

The Family Justice Board has agreed system-wide targets for 2025/26, focussed on further reducing delay and outstanding caseloads, and supporting areas with higher backlogs such as London. The Family Justice Strategy for London includes additional investment over 2025/26 to tackle the outstanding private law caseload by providing additional capacity and a judicial-led initiative to reduce delays.

The Government recognises the critical role third-party litigation funding plays in access to justice. That is why we are committed to ensuring it works fairly for all.

The Civil Justice Council published its comprehensive review of litigation funding in England and Wales on 2 June, which will help inform the Government approach to any potential reforms in this area. The Government welcomes this review and is carefully considering the recommendations in the final report. Our response will consider how best to strike the balance between supporting access to justice through third party litigation funding and increasing the transparency and fairness of such arrangements. We will outline next steps in due course.

The Government recognises the critical role third-party litigation funding plays in access to justice. That is why we are committed to ensuring it works fairly for all.

The Civil Justice Council published its comprehensive review of litigation funding in England and Wales on 2 June, which will help inform the Government approach to any potential reforms in this area. The Government welcomes this review and is carefully considering the recommendations in the final report. Our response will consider how best to strike the balance between supporting access to justice through third party litigation funding and increasing the transparency and fairness of such arrangements. We will outline next steps in due course.

The Government recognises the critical role third-party litigation funding plays in access to justice. That is why we are committed to ensuring it works fairly for all.

The Civil Justice Council published its comprehensive review of litigation funding in England and Wales on 2 June, which will help inform the Government approach to any potential reforms in this area. The Government welcomes this review and is carefully considering the recommendations in the final report. Our response will consider how best to strike the balance between supporting access to justice through third party litigation funding and increasing the transparency and fairness of such arrangements. We will outline next steps in due course.

The Government does not publish data on the number of super-injunctions currently in force, due to the sensitive and often confidential nature of such orders.

Where such orders are made, they are typically issued by the High Court under strict judicial oversight and may include provisions that prevent disclosure of their very existence.

Our latest published statistics for Employment Tribunals can be found using the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/tribunals-statistics.

This data details the number of receipts by jurisdiction and the number of claims disposed. The Department does not collect the proportion of those claims brought by gender or the number of claims relating to paternity leave.

This data is currently published up to March 2025 and only includes the cases received on digital systems and does not include those transitioned from paper-based systems.

Our latest published statistics for Employment Tribunals can be found using the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/tribunals-statistics.

This data details the number of receipts by jurisdiction and the number of claims disposed. The Department does not collect the proportion of those claims brought by gender or the number of claims relating to paternity leave.

This data is currently published up to March 2025 and only includes the cases received on digital systems and does not include those transitioned from paper-based systems.

This Government has maintained open dialogue and a constructive relationship with Sir Brian Leveson and Ministers have met with him in his capacity as Chair of the Independent Review of the Criminal Courts (IRCC), as is the usual convention when Governments commission independent reviews. This has included meetings with myself as Minister for Courts and Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede who has held responsibility for Magistrates’ policy and engagement, as well as meetings with the Lord Chancellor.

The requested information is not centrally held.

On Wednesday 23 April, the Department became aware of a cyber-attack on the Legal Aid Agency’s (LAA) online digital services.

To ensure the best chance of reaching as many potentially impacted individuals as possible the Ministry of Justice acted quickly. A notice was published a notice at 08:15 on the 19 May on GOV.UK.

This has been an unprecedented event and every effort is being made to restore services following the criminal attack on our systems. The LAA digital services have been taken offline to negate the threat and prevent further exposure of legal aid providers and users. We have been able to return some systems to internal use, enabling an improved ability to support criminal legal aid applications and payments.

We cannot confirm a specific timescale for full service restoration. In the interim, the LAA will continue to provide updates as soon as they are available and will work closely with representative bodies to ensure any extended or refined contingency measures support providers and their clients to the maximum extent. All updates, including contingency arrangements, are published on the LAA’s dedicated cyber security incident webpage: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/legal-aid-agency-cyber-security-incident.

Our priority remains to maintain access to justice and to ensure legal aid providers can continue to be paid in a timely manner. These enhanced measures are designed to support legal aid providers and their clients and to prevent a significant case backlog while contingency measures are in place.

The data breach is the result of serious criminal activity, but it was enabled by the fragility of the LAA’s IT systems as a result of the long years of underinvestment under the last Conservative Government. By contrast, since taking power this Government has prioritised work to reverse the damage of over a decade of under-investment. That includes the allocation of over £20 million in extra funding this year to stabilise and transform the LAA digital services. This investment will make the system more robust and resilient in the face of similar cyber-attacks in future.

This Government inherited a record and rising courts backlog, due in large part to restrictions on courtroom operations put in place during the Covid-19 pandemic, and subsequent Criminal Bar Association strike action. In addition, over the last 12-months, we have seen an 18.6% increase in new cases for the London Crown Courts.

Listing is a judicial function. HM Courts & Tribunals Service works in liaison with the judiciary reviewing and prioritising cases when listing trials, in accordance with the sitting day allocation.

In some Crown Court centres across the London region, cases listed for trial in June 2025 were given dates in 2028 and 2029 – with a very small number being listed into the summer of 2029. However, the vast majority of the trial load is listed before the end of 2026.

The Ministry of Justice publishes statistics on ineffective trial rates, and the general reasons behind ineffective trials (including witness absence/withdrawal), here: Criminal court statistics quarterly: January to March 2025 - GOV.UK.

This Government has funded a record-high allocation of Crown Court sitting days – 110,000 days this financial year, 4,000 more than the previous Government – to tackle the outstanding caseload. We also commissioned Sir Brian Leveson to undertake an Independent Review of the Criminal Courts to consider the merits of longer-term reform and the efficiency of processes in the criminal courts. We will carefully consider Sir Brian’s proposals in more detail before setting out the Government’s full response to the report in the autumn.

As part of our commitment to bearing down on the criminal caseload we have increased magistrates’ court sentencing powers from 6 months to 12 months’ imprisonment for single triable-either way offences. This will free up capacity in the Crown Court.

The Government does not routinely publish or hold centralised data on the number of super-injunctions currently in force, due to the sensitive and often confidential nature of such orders.

Where such orders are made, they are typically issued by the High Court under strict judicial oversight and may include provisions that prevent disclosure of their very existence.

This Government is fully committed to the protection of human rights both domestically and internationally and remains unequivocally committed to international human rights frameworks.

However, as the Lord Chancellor set out in her speech to the Council of Europe, we are encouraging a constructive dialogue between Contracting Parties to the European Convention on Human Rights on how the Convention can respond to developments in our societies and restore public confidence in the rule of law.

This Government is fully committed to the protection of human rights both domestically and internationally and remains unequivocally committed to international human rights frameworks.

However, as the Lord Chancellor set out in her speech to the Council of Europe, we are encouraging a constructive dialogue between Contracting Parties to the European Convention on Human Rights on how the Convention can respond to developments in our societies and restore public confidence in the rule of law.

This Government is fully committed to the protection of human rights both domestically and internationally and remains unequivocally committed to international human rights frameworks.

However, as the Lord Chancellor set out in her speech to the Council of Europe, we are encouraging a constructive dialogue between Contracting Parties to the European Convention on Human Rights on how the Convention can respond to developments in our societies and restore public confidence in the rule of law.

This Government is fully committed to the protection of human rights both domestically and internationally and remains unequivocally committed to international human rights frameworks.

However, as the Lord Chancellor set out in her speech to the Council of Europe, we are encouraging a constructive dialogue between Contracting Parties to the European Convention on Human Rights on how the Convention can respond to developments in our societies and restore public confidence in the rule of law.

It would not be possible to provide disaggregated data at the level of detail requested without incurring disproportionate cost.

In line with the Code of Practice for Statistics, we are unable to provide the requested information at this time, as doing so would disclose a subset of data which is currently intended for future publication by the Ministry of Justice.

Data on the number of Foreign National Offenders in prison by offence group is due for publication on 31 July 2025 in the Offender Management Statistics Quarterly.

Lord Timpson, Minister of State for Prisons, Probation and Reducing Reoffending, has met regularly with senior representatives from Serco. The most recent of these meetings took place on Tuesday 22 July 2025. At that meeting, the Minister welcomed the improvements observed in Serco’s recent performance but emphasised the need for continued progress at pace to meet the standards set out in the contract. Serco’s performance continues to be monitored closely and we will not hesitate to apply financial penalties should our high-performance targets not be met.

There are a range of options to support homeowners who cannot afford legal representation in disputes with housing developers and associations over structural defects. Advice organisations, such as Citizens Advice and Shelter, may be able to provide advice or signpost to further support, and leaseholders may be able to get support from organisations that specialise in leasehold issues, such as the Leasehold Advisory Service. Alternatively, ombudsman services may be able to provide support with resolving a dispute.

There are also a variety of ways to fund or support some types of legal action, which may include disputes. These include insurance policies, and homeowners should check whether their insurance policy includes Legal Expenses Insurance, which may provide coverage for certain legal expenses and costs. Homeowners may also be able to fund a legal case through a ‘no-win, no-fee' conditional fee agreement. This is a means of funding litigation, usually entered into by claimants, where the lawyer agrees not to take a fee if the claim fails.

Between July 2021 and December 2024, a total of 1,272,250 hours of unpaid work were worked in the West Midlands.

Data from April 2022 to December 2024 sourced from the latest published statistics on unpaid work. A link can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/biannual-unpaid-work-management-information.

Data from July 2021 to March 2022 sourced from nDelius on 22/07/2025. While these data have been assured as much as practical, as with any large administrative dataset, the data should not be assumed to be accurate to the last value presented.

Data from the biannual Unpaid Work publication are rounded to the nearest five hours worked for data suppression purposes. To be consistent with the publication, the hours worked between July 2021 and March 2022 have also been rounded to the nearest five.

The next publication is due in Autumn 2025.

Data prior to July 2021 is unable to be reported on, due to difficulty in aligning regions pre and post-unification. The unification of Community Rehabilitation Companies and the National Probation Service in England and Wales took place on 26 June 2021, marking a significant restructuring of the probation system.

The suppliers for the Ministry of Justice Black History Month events listed in the Civil Service 2024/2025 External Expenditure on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, published on 30 May 2025, were:

• Author Colin Douglas who spoke about the role of the Caribbean in the Second World War

• Historians Paul Obinna and Danny Thompson who are experts on black history.

Legal aid for immigration cases is important to maintaining an effective immigration and asylum system. Legal aid can play a vital role in ensuring the smooth running of the courts, by providing timely advice to the individuals concerned, reducing the likelihood of delays and adjournments and helping to tackle court backlogs. Hourly rates for immigration work have not been uplifted since 1996, but, following the Review of Civil Legal Aid, and a consultation on increasing fees for those working in the housing and debt and immigration and asylum sectors, we are taking action to uplift those fees given the particularly acute pressures facing these sectors.

This investment will help the Government deliver commitments to reduce the asylum backlog, end hotel use, increase returns and ensure the most vulnerable – such as victims of modern slavery and human trafficking - can navigate a complex legal system and access justice.

It is not possible to measure ‘backlog’ within the County Courts due to the nature of Civil claims with many claims settling between parties. The pace of such cases is very often determined by the choices and behaviour of the parties.

Our focus across Hertfordshire is to progress the cases in as timely a way as possible whilst balancing the individual circumstances and needs of each case. The Designated Family Judge and Designated Civil Judge along with HM Courts & Tribunals Service, have implemented robust listing and case progression initiatives. Cases are reviewed so that court hearing time is maximised, waiting times are reduced and matters that are suitable for the hearing to be brought forward are prioritised. This is achieved by utilising courtroom capacity that becomes available from other cases resolving.

As outlined in the Common Understanding from the UK-EU Summit, the UK will have a joint role in shaping any new rules governing our relationship with the EU. In specific areas this will mean aligning our shared obligations to facilitate better trade and increased security. However, no rules will apply in the UK without Parliament’s agreement and any disputes will be done by international arbitration.

The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) will only have a role with regards the interpretation of EU law, in the same way that UK judges remain the independent interpreters of UK law. The Government remains unequivocally committed to the independence of the judiciary. We will continually work to ensure that any cooperation with the EU, including alignment where appropriate, respects the UK’s constitutional framework and preserves the independence of our judiciary.

The Secretary of State for Justice regards Judicial Office Holders’ safety with great importance. There are robust security and safety systems at court/tribunals to protect all court users and the department works with the Police and Judicial Office to deliver effective judicial security outside of court and online.

Physical attacks on Judicial Office holders are incredibly rare. There have been two instances in the past five years. When serious incidents such as these do occur, they are subject to robust investigations to ensure lessons are learnt to prevent recurrence and ensure all security and safety risks are managed to as low a level as reasonably practicable. Over £20m in additional funding in 25/26 has been allocated to a programme of works to further strengthen existing physical and online security arrangements.

The Lord Chancellor will begin the Concordat process with the judiciary in due course, and this is how sitting days will be allocated. The Lord Chancellor has been clear she is committed to tackling the outstanding caseload, but the number of sitting days allocated is just one factor in achieving this. The Lord Chancellor must be mindful of managing the wider system capacity—the availability not just of judges to sit in the Crown court but of the lawyers, prosecutors, legal aid and defence barristers that underpin the rest of the system.

This information requested is not held centrally.

This information requested is not held centrally.

This Government inherited a record and rising courts backlog. We have funded a record-high allocation of Crown Court sitting days – 110,000 days this financial year, 4,000 more than the previous Government – to tackle the outstanding caseload.

However, the scale of the challenge is beyond what increasing sitting days alone can achieve.

This is why we commissioned Sir Brian Leveson to undertake an Independent Review of the Criminal Courts to consider the merits of longer-term reform and the efficiency of processes in the criminal courts. We will carefully consider Sir Brian’s proposals in more detail before setting out the Government’s full response to the report in the autumn.

At the end of March 2025 there were 373 open cases at Truro Crown Court. 328 of these were "for trial" cases, up from 191 the previous year.

Truro continues to maximise the use of Crown Court estate to increase the number of cases sat. In June 2025 Crown Court appeals were heard at Truro magistrates’ court to reduce the appeal backlog, whilst also maintaining trials at Truro Crown Court.

Further information regarding caseload trends can be found in the published statistics which can be found here: Criminal court statistics quarterly: January to March 2025 - GOV.UK

The Government welcomes the Civil Justice Council review of litigation funding, which will help inform the approach to potential reforms. We are carefully considering the recommendations made in the review and will outline next steps in due course.

The Government welcomes the Civil Justice Council review of litigation funding, which will help inform the approach to potential reforms. We are carefully considering the recommendations made in the review and will outline next steps in due course.

This Government is committed to ensuring access to justice for all, whether people have legal representation or not. The Ministry of Justice is providing over £6 million of grant funding in 2025-26 to 60 organisations to improve access to free legal support and information, both in-person and online. This includes support for Litigants in Person (LiPs) to help them navigate the justice system effectively, including preparation for court and support at court.

Judges have a duty to ensure a fair trial by giving LiPs assistance, helping to ensure that LiPs are treated equally before the law. Guidance and rules sets out how the judiciary engage with LiPs, including the Equal Treatment Bench Book and Practice Direction 1A of the Civil Procedure Rules. LiPs can request supportive measures including reasonable adjustments, and interpreters at court. They can request to bring their own supporter such as a friend/family member. New digital services built under the Reform programme have been designed to be simple, accessible, and easy to use for LiPs.

The Government will continue to take steps to understand and improve LiPs’ experience of the civil justice system through Public User engagement Groups, research and feedback surveys.

The legal profession in England and Wales, together with its regulators, operate independently of government. The Office for Legal Complaints (OLC) is the independent body responsible for administering the Legal Ombudsman (LeO) Scheme and the Legal Services Board (LSB), in its role as oversight regulator, has statutory duties in relation to monitoring the OLC.

My officials have engaged with the LeO, which has advised that, at present, it has no complaints that have been waiting four or more years for allocation for investigation. There are two cases where initial contact with the LeO occurred over four years ago, but where enquiries were either premature (not previously responded to by the legal provider, as required by legislation) or lacked sufficient information to proceed.

The LeO has also advised it operates a policy for prioritising cases where a continued delay is likely to have an adverse impact on the complainant, such as cases involving vulnerability, significant medical issues or a required reasonable adjustment.

The Ministry of Justice has no responsibility for non-therapeutic male circumcision or its regulation.

The Government, however, sympathises with the children and families affected by the harm caused by unregulated and irresponsible individuals who claim to be medical practitioners. It is right that those who act outside the law, as in the case of Mr Alazawi, are held accountable and brought to justice in these cases.

Non-therapeutic male circumcision refers to procedures not medically necessary. While the Government respects that some parents seek this for religious or cultural reasons, it would urge all families to ensure the procedure is carried out safely, with the child’s wellbeing given the highest priority. We would also encourage parents, before such a procedure is undertaken on their child, to discuss the matter first with their GP or healthcare practitioner.

The Ministry of Justice publishes data on the number of prosecutions across England and Wales in the Outcomes by Offences data tool, that can be downloaded from the Criminal Justice Statistics landing page here: Criminal justice statistics - GOV.UK.

The offences that constitute unlawful abortion include procuring an illegal abortion under sections 58 and 59 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861, as well as child destruction under section 1 of the Infant Life (Preservation) Act 1929. This data is held on a principal-offence basis and therefore reports information relating to the most serious offence that a defendant was dealt for. The Department of Health and Social Care is responsible for the policy relating to telemedicine for early medical abortion. The available data does not specify how many of these prosecutions are linked to the use of telemedicine for early medical abortion. The Government has not made an assessment on the connection between the number of such prosecutions and the availability of telemedicine for early medical abortion.

The Government welcomes the Civil Justice Council review of litigation funding, which will help inform the approach to potential reforms. We will outline next steps in due course.

Electronic Monitoring can be one part of robust licence conditions to support the management of offenders in the community. It is a mandatory requirement for those released under the Home Detention Curfew scheme and for those released onto the Acquisitive Crime programme. Electronic Monitoring can also be used on a discretionary basis where it is available, and probation practitioners consider it a proportionate and necessary part of a risk management plan. The requested information for all those offenders released without an electronic monitoring requirement is not held centrally and could only be provided at a disproportionate cost.

In the latest published figures as of 31 March 2025, there were 89 FTE fewer staff in post compared to the target staffing level. This relates to the full-time equivalent, adjusted for different contracted hours, for Band 3 to 5 Prison Officers working in public sector prisons in the West Midlands. These figures are available in HM Prison and Probation Service workforce quarterly: March 2025, Prison and Probation Officer Recruitment annex: March 2025 via HM Prison and Probation Service workforce quarterly: March 2025.

Notes:

• This figure covers all Band 3 - 5 Officers includes Band 3 - 4 Prison Officers (including specialists), Band 4 Supervising Officers, and Band 5 Custodial Managers.

• The figure is a net value and balances out surpluses and deficits between the individual establishments.

• Prisons included in this analysis cover the West Midlands Prison Group (Birmingham, Brinsford, Featherstone, Hewell, Stafford, Stoke Heath, Sudbury, and Swinfen Hall), supplemented by a Long Term High Security Estate prison, a women’s prison and a Young Offenders Institution in the West Midlands region (Long Lartin, Drake Hall and Werrington).

• Data only includes Public Sector Prisons. Data does not include Private Sector Prison establishments.

• The Target Staffing level changes regularly in response to Governors' freedoms and other changes requested by the business.

• Target Staffing is the number of staff required to run an optimal regime in each prison. This level is greater than the minimum number of staff required for a prison to operate safely, and includes allowances for staff taking leave, being off sick or being on training.

Elevated radon readings were first found at Dartmoor in 2020. HMPPS have been monitoring radon levels to manage exposure to prisoners and staff.

Dartmoor has been temporarily closed since August 2024 after monitoring results were higher than expected. We are working with specialist radon experts to investigate whether we can re-open the prison safely.

Increasing the numbers of foreign national offender returns from our prisons is a priority for this Government.

We are working with international partners wherever possible to help achieve this.

The correspondence of 11 June will be responded to in due course.

The Government appreciates the importance of this issue and will provide an update in due course.

In its manifesto, the Government committed to strengthening protective orders, which can be used to protect from harassment in different situations, to make sure victims can get the strongest protection they need, at the earliest opportunity. Last November, we launched a new Domestic Abuse Protection Order that goes further than the current protective orders, including tagging of perpetrators and mandating attendance on behaviour change programmes, to help address root causes of abuse. This order is available across family, civil and criminal courts in selected areas, so that victims can get protection at the best time and place for them.

A civil claim may also be brought for harassment, where it is a connected course of conduct by the same person causing the victim distress or alarm. Civil remedies include injunctions to prohibit the conduct and damages to compensate for distress and loss.

Additionally, the 42 Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) in England and Wales receive annual grant funding from the Ministry of Justice victim and witness budget to commission local practical, emotional, and therapeutic support services for victims. This includes ‘core’ funding for victims of all crime types and funding that is ring-fenced for sexual violence and domestic abuse services. PCCs allocate funding locally at their discretion, based on their assessment of local need. PCCs are well placed to understand their local communities and providers, and to commission appropriate support services to meet the need of victims in their area including those affected by harassment.